LVI. with great effect his unexhausted store of jests, new and old, CHAP. and remembering that "to be free-minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat, and of sleep, and of exercise, is one of the best precepts of long lasting." about He was rather fanciful about his health, preferring meats Fanciful which bred "juices substantial and less dissipable,” — taking health. three grains of nitre daily in warm broth, and an infusion of rhubarb into white wine and beer once in six or seven days, immediately before his meal, "that it might dry the body less." he always 'fainted moon. To show something supernatural about such a man, for Fable that the purpose of raising our wonder and admiration,-Rawley, his chaplain and secretary, asserts, and his subsequent away at biographers have repeated, that at every change or any change of eclipse of the moon he invariably fainted, although he was not aware that such an event was to take place; but that he recovered as soon as the suns rays again illumined her disc. † As no instance is recorded of his ever having fainted in public, or put off the hearing of a cause on account of the change of the moon, or of any approaching eclipse, visible or invisible, and neither himself nor any of his other contemporaries refer to any such infirmity, and such a "delicacy of temperament" is somewhat incredible, we must set down the story to the invention or easy credulity of the man who thought that it might be explained by his hero's "lunar horoscope at the moment of his birth." A more serious matter is the charge brought against him of infidelity. At one time in his youth, he seems not only to have been sceptical, but to have been disposed openly to in non erat; sed et aliis simul considentibus libertatem et vicissitudinem loquendi ↑ "Verisimile est lunam in themate ejus natalitio præcipuum aliquem locum (veluti in horoscopo aut medio cœli) tenuisse. Quoties enim luna defecit aut eclipsim passa est, repentino animi deliquio correptus fuit: idque etiam si nullam defectionis lunaris notitiam præviam habuisset. Quamprimum autem luna lumini priori restituta fuisset, confestim refocillatus est et convaluit," Charge of infidelity. LVI. CHAP. sult the religion of others. Notwithstanding the stout denial that he was the author of the "Paradoxes," I cannot doubt that the publication is from his pen, and I cannot characterise it otherwise, than as a profane attempt to ridicule the Christian faith. But I suspect that he is describing the history of his own mind when he says, "It is an assured truth, and a conclusion of experience, that a little or superficial knowledge of philosophy may incline the mind of man to atheism, but a further proceeding therein doth bring the mind back again to religion; for in the entrance of philosophy, when the second causes, which are next unto the senses, do offer themselves to the mind of man, if it dwell and stay there, it may induce some oblivion of the highest cause; but when a man passeth on further, and seeth the dependence of causes and the works of Providence, then, according to the allegory of the poets, he will easily believe that the highest link of Nature's chain must needs be tied to the foot of Jupiter's chair."* He certainly received a most pious education; and if his early religious impressions were for a time weakened or effaced by his intercourse with French philosophers, or his own first rash examination of the reasons of his belief, I am fully convinced that they were restored and deepened by subsequent study and reflection. I rely not merely on his "Confession of Faith," or the other direct declarations of his belief in the great truths of our religion, (although I know not what right we have to question his sincerity,) but I am swayed more by the devotional feelings which from time to time, without premeditation or design, break out in his writings, and the incidental indications he gives of his full conviction of the being and providence of God, and of the Divine mission of our blessed Saviour. His lapses from the path of honour afford no argument against the genuineness of his speculative belief. Upon the whole, we may be well assured that the difficulties which at one time perplexed him, had been completely dissipated; his keen perception saw as * Adv. of Learning. See the Essay "Of Atheism," which was added in the later editions. clearly as it is ever given to man in this state to discover-the hand of the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the universe; -and his gigantic intellect must have been satisfied with the consideration, that assuming the truth of natural and of revealed religion, it is utterly inconsistent with the system of human affairs, and with the condition of man in this world, that they should have been more clearly disclosed to us. CHAP. LVI. rivals. Among his good qualities it ought to be montioned, that Free from he had no mean jealousy of others, and he was always dis- jealousy of posed to patronise merit. Feeling how long he himself had been unjustly depressed from unworthy motives, he never would inflict similar injustice on others, and he repeatedly cautions statesmen to guard against this propensity. that plots to be a figure among ciphers is the decay of a whole age." "He He retained through life his passion for planting and gardening, and, when Chancellor, he ornamented Lincoln's Inn Fields with walks and groves, and gave the first example of an umbrageous square in a great metropolis.* Little remains except to give some account of his person. His person. He was of a middling stature, his limbs well formed though not robust, his forehead high, spacious, and open, his eye lively and penetrating; there were deep lines of thinking in his face; his smile was both intellectual and benevolent; the marks of age were prematurely impressed upon him ; — in advanced life, his whole appearance was venerably pleasing, so that a stranger was insensibly drawn to love before knowing how much reason there was to admire him. his merits It is with great pain that I have found myself obliged to take Duty of an impartial view of his character and conduct; - but to sup- criminating duly dispress or pervert facts, to confound, for the purpose of and deholding him up as a perfect being, moral distinctions which lineating should be kept well defined and far apart, — would be a vain and deattempt to do honour to his genius,—would not be creditable to the biographer who sees his faults,-and would tend to demoralise as far as it might be effectual. Others who really believe fects. CHAP. LVI. Regret that he did not confine himself to philosophy. His fu neral. Bacon to be immaculate, are fully justified in proclaiming him to the world to be so. This was by no means the opinion he entertained of himself. He acknowledges to Sir Thomas Bodley his many errors, and among the rest, says he, "this great one which led the rest, that knowing myself by inward calling to be fitter to hold a book than play part, I have led my life in civil causes, for which I was not very fit by nature, and more unfit by pre-occupation of mind." When young, he had "vast contemplative ends and moderate civil ends." If he had inherited the patrimony intended for him by his father, if he had obtained the provision which he solicited from the minister on his father's death, it is possible that he might have sunk into indolence and obscurity; but from his native energy, and from the consciousness with which he seems to have been very early inspired of his high calling to be "the great reformer of philosophy," the probability is, that he would have left the Instauratio Magna complete -preserving a spotless reputation. Then, indeed, we should have justly honoured him beyond any of his species, to whom miraculous gifts have not been directly imparted by Heaven. But without incurring any blame in the first instance, he was driven to betake himself to the profession of the law for a subsistence; hence, he was involved in the vortex of politics; intellectual glory became his secondary object; and his nature being changed and debased, to gain professional advancement, official station, and political power, there was no baseness to which he was not ready to submit, and hardly any crime which he would not have been willing to perpetrate. I still readily acknowledge him to be a great man; but can only wish he had been a good man. Transposing the words applied by Tacitus to Agricola, I may truly say, "Magnum virum facile crederes, bonum libenter." No According to the directions in his will, his remains were interred in St. Michael's Church, near St. Alban's. account has reached us of his funeral, and there is reason to fear that, on this occasion, as his connection with the Court had entirely ceased, and a party squabble was engrossing the attention of the public, the great and the noble did not at LVI. tend to do honour to his memory. But then and there, no CHAP. Franciscus Bacon Baro de Verula Sti Albni Vicms Scientiarum Lumen Facundiæ Lex Qui postquam omnia naturalis sapientiæ Composita solvantur Tanti viri Thomas Meautys His epitaph. insolvent. Notwithstanding all the money he had received duly and He died unduly,—such was his love of expence and his neglect of his affairs, that upon his death his estate appears to have been found insolvent. All the six executors whom he named in his will refused to act, and on the 13th of July, 1627, administration with the will annexed, was granted to Sir Thomas Meautys and Sir Robert Rich, a Master in Chancery, as two of his creditors. No funds were forthcoming for the foundation of his lectureships. His wife survived him twenty years, but lived in retire- His widow. ment. Bacon perhaps comforted himself for his want of offspring, by recollecting the instances from which he drew his saying, that "Great men have no continuance;" but he seems at times to have felt a pang at the thought that he was to leave no children to close his eyes, or to weep over his grave: "They increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death."* • Essay, "Of Parents and Children." See Life of Bacon by Montagu, and the admirable article upon him by Macaulay. Essays, vol. ii. 280. His feelbeing ings on childless. |